EDITORIALS
Canada's Answer CANADA REFUSED to put her head into the noose held out to her by the Special Interests. The mis-named "reciprocity" deal, it appears, found its chief support among the argricultural...
...That is the important consideration...
...There is now in progress in Milwaukee a survey which has truly been called "a pioneer work...
...Every city should adopt the Commons' Plan...
...But aside from sentimental influences, aside from sectional interests, the decisive rejection of the Taft-Laurier agreement means that our neighbors to the northward are not going to place themselves, voluntarily, still more completely under the control of the Special Interests of the United States...
...Madison "ED" MADISON, foe of Cannonism, Morganism, Guggenheimism, and all the other "isms" of plutocratic rule, is no more...
...Only last week there was held in Chicago an international municipal congress at which were exhibited and discussed plans and programs for improving the city government, for making it really serve the needs and best interests of those who supported it...
...But it is not enough to democratize our cities...
...Says Mr...
...with that must come efficiency, the elimination of wasteful methods, the stopping of "leaks...
...Sandberg: "You have heard about watchdogs of the treasury, guardians of the woolsack, officers whose duty is to police the strong box where the public money is kept...
...What he is doing is ably described on another page of this magazine in an article entitled "Making the City Efficient...
...This was not unexpected...
...The splendid home market which the American farmer has sacrificed so much to create is looked upon enviously by the wheat raisers of Canada...
...Getting public money at the wrong time and in the wrong way is the curse of our cities...
...Cities that were fast in the grip of the absurd bipartisan system of government, and securely in the control of public utility and vice "rings," are now enjoying a degree of self-government that once seemed but a mirage...
...Our trusts were to be given still further advantage—at the expense chiefly of our farmers—by opening up to them the vast sources of raw material in Canada, but there was nothing in that arrangement to insure a compensating advantage to the consumer in the way of lower prices...
...It is this unholy alliance that called forth Lincoln Steffens' book, "The Shame of the Cities...
...The Voice of Canada declared, "We will not of our own free will, help the great trusts across the border to a still easier conquest of our country...
...It is under the direction of John R. Commons...
...Let those who will not rest content until they know that every dollar of public money is being spent by their city officials wisely and efficiently, turn to Milwaukee for information...
...A Civic Burglar Alarm THERE IS TOO MUCH business in the government of most of our cities...
...There has come about, however, a general awakening...
...His passing was all too soon...
...The cost system"—that is what is going to be of untold service to city folk in adding efficiency to democracy in the City of To-morrow...
...And again: "It is not designed to relieve the consumer from the operation of Monopoly...
...What is true of this country in that respect is true also of Canada...
...The Special Interests that were the chief beneficiaries of the false-pretense "reciprocity" tariff measure hold absolute sway over the market wherein we sell as well as over the market wherein we buy...
...It was pointed out by Senator La Follette, during the debate on the President's compact that: "The American manufacturer controls the business on this continent and the American farmers must continue to pay tribute to him, and accept the prices he fixes, irrespective of any competition that may be opposed by giving our field to the little Canadian competitor of the great American manufacturers...
...He was a splendid fighter for the right and his loss is sorely felt...
...Canada saw her resources about to be opened to these interests, freely, while at the same time she had no escape from monopoly control of the prices she must pay for the finished products sent back for her consumption—the flour, the meat, the oil, the motors, the steel and iron products, and the rest...
...The boy may go swimming, but must hot go in the water.—San Francisco Star...
...He served his country bravely and well...
...WHEN BIG BUSINESS fights the initiative, referendum and recall, it means that the people may have self-government if they can get it without the political tools necessary for self-government...
...Observe the spread of the commission plan...
...Our trusts are invading Canada, as they are invading every other civilized country in the world, and meeting all competition successfully...
...This-sturdy insurgent Congress- man from Kansas alone of all the Republicans on the so-called Ballinger-Pinchot investigating committee refused to soil his hands with the whitewash brush in the interests of "party solidarity...
...Business and Politics are the partners that divide the spoils—special privileges and "honest graft...
...The mis-named "reciprocity" deal, it appears, found its chief support among the argricultural interests of the far northwest...
...A well-made, up-to-date cost system ought to be compared with a combination time-lock and burglar alarm contrivance that throws scalding water on those who fry to get public money at the wrong time in the wrong way...
...There is, also, too much politics...
...A cost system is different...
...Perhaps Canada will not accept genuine reciprocity— certainly never a fraud like that just submitted to her—until we have shown our ability to cope successfully with our problem of Private Monopoly...
...That control over the prices of what we buy and sell would not have been changed in the slightest even if the people of Canada had approved the agreement...
Vol. 3 • September 1911 • No. 39
